Masters of Metal
From Worlds Beyond

From worlds beyond comes the debut album by a quartet that calls themselves Masters of Metal. I would say that it is a grand claim to call oneself Master of Metal; it also adds the pressure to deliver something special. And speaking of the term special, their logo is quite dreadful and manages to look badly put together and being very stereotypical at the same time. The cover artwork is a lot more special, I think it is a very nice artwork and especially like the colour scheme of it. But how about the album, are these guys really masters of metal?

Well, they are masters at making metal as it usually sounds. A bit of heavy metal, a bit of speed and thrash metal woven into a quite standardised weave of metal music. A singer that is quite good but also quite typical of the style they are performing. Modern production that is just as rough around the edges as it is supposed to be to fit the bill. One can certainly not claim that they are masters of reinventing metal as they seem more inclined to use their experience to paint-by-numbers as good as possible and make metal that stand out as little as possible. They sure do what they do well but one cannot accuse them for making something with the feeling of novelty.

It is a pretty good album, the songs work alright and everything. The thing is though that when you hear something over and over and over again it stops being interesting and ends up feeling ordinary. This album is one of those albums, and more than I enjoy the songs I think of why a band of this experience use their experience to make music that is as much like the archetype of the genre as possible, it doesn’t make sense to me – being creative is more about breaking new ground than replicating what has been done before. That is the difference between being an artist and a professional and for me artistery is always more interesting than professionalism.

There are eleven tracks on this piece of work, all of them are quite good but none of them stand out that much and the variation might be a little too little to really benefit the album. I think that fans of the previous bands of the members might find it interesting and I doubt that those getting the album will be majorly disappointed, as it is good enough to entertain. But at the same time one has to admit that there are many albums that would be a wiser choice for those looking for a new and exciting album.

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